by tradition was born, as we have seen, in London.

No other manifestation of their nuptial happiness appeared until 7
January, 1721, on which date the "Post Boy" contained an Advertisement
of the elopement of Mrs. Eliz. Haywood, wife of Rev. Valentine
Haywood.[5] The causes of Eliza's flight are unknown. Our only knowledge
of her temperament in her early life comes from a remark by Nichols that
the character of Sappho in the "Tatler"[6] may be "assigned
with ...probability and confidence, to Mrs. Elizabeth Heywood, who ...was
in all respects just such a character as is exhibited here." Sappho is
described by Steele as "a fine lady, who writes verses, sings, dances,
and can say and do whatever she pleases, without the imputation of any
thing that can injure her character; for she is so well known to have no
passion but self-love, or folly but affectation, that now, upon any
occasion, they only cry, 'It is her way!' and 'That is so like her!'
without farther reflection." She quotes a "wonderfully just" passage
from Milton, calls a licentious speech from Dryden's "State of
Innocence" an "odious thing," and says "a thousand good things at
random, but so strangely mixed, that you would be apt to say, all her
wit is mere good luck, and not the effect of reason and judgment." In
the second paper Sappho quotes examples of generous love from Suckling
and Milton, but takes offence at a letter containing some sarcastic
remarks on married women. We know that Steele was personally acquainted
with Mrs. Manley, and it is possible that he knew Mrs. Haywood, since
she later dedicated a novel to him. With some reservation, then, we may
accept this sketch as a fair likeness. As a young matron of seventeen or
eighteen she was evidently a lively, unconventional, opinionated
gadabout fond of the company of similar She-romps, who exchanged verses
and specimen letters with the lesser celebrities of the literary world
and perpetuated the stilted romantic traditions of the Matchless Orinda